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Women hold only 10% of the top management positions and directorships in 400 of California's largest corporations, writes Steve Currall, dean of the Graduate School of Management at the University of California-Davis. "It's vital that we have that diversity of thought and experience in the leadership of these companies. More and more research is examining the possibility that having more women in top management and on boards actually improves company performance," he asserts.

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A new study from Women in Film, the Sundance Institute and the University of Southern California says more women direct independent, low-budget films proportionately speaking than high-grossing blockbusters. Male directors outnumbered females at the Sundance festival by 3 to 1 from 2002 to 2014, but outnumbered female directors on the top 1,300 grossing films by 23 to 1 over the same time period. Stacy Smith, director of the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative at USC's Annenberg School, authored the study.

Babies born to women in California who, while pregnant, lived near areas treated with pesticides were 60% more likely to have autism spectrum disorders or developmental delays, a University of California Davis study found. More than 200 million pounds of pesticides are used annually in California, making it difficult for many to avoid exposure.

Female business executives are making some headway in breaking down the corporate glass ceiling, according to the latest annual UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders, but the male-to-female ratio in the board room is still lopsided in favor of men. Women now represent 10.9% of the highest paying executive and board positions in California’s top 400 public companies, a 1% increase over last year. Companies that install women in leadership roles "have about three times as much revenue as the average company in our study and nearly 50% as much income as well," author of the study Amanda Kimball said.

The Center for Produce Safety at the University of California-Davis has awarded $3 million in grants to help fund 16 research projects, seven of them centered on water and irrigation. "The research being conducted at CPS is relevant to all points of the supply chain -- farmers, shippers, handlers and consumers," said Board Chairman Stephen Patricio.

Many major brands of olive oil failed to live up to their extra-virgin labels in a recent study. The study, conducted at the University of California-Davis, looked for the presence of oxidation and whether other oils had been used to dilute olive oil classified as "extra-virgin," due to growing truth-in-labeling concerns in the U.S. market. "It's become a very sophisticated practice, the adulteration of olive oil throughout the world," said Charles Shoemaker of the Olive Oil Chemistry Lab at UC-Davis.